Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: What does fair mean?

15 minutes

Find Out: Making games fair

30 minutes

Take Action: Make the change

15 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

discover what ‘fair’ means
explore how the Commonwealth Games make sport fair and accessible.

Success criteria

Students can:

identify unfair situations in games
propose strategies to make games fair.

Tune In: What does fair mean?

Step 1

Use the Think, Pair, Share thinking routine to explore the term ‘fair’ with your students. Use the guiding questions to assist your discussion:

What does fair mean?
Why should things be fair?
What does it mean to be unfair?
Can you provide an example of an unfair situation in sports?

Explain to students that throughout history, there have been situations where sports rules were unfair to many people who wanted to participate. More recently, sports organisations have focused on fairness and inclusion in sports, where people of different skills and abilities can participate.

Step 2

Explain to students that different people can do different things with their bodies. To recognise this, they will participate in a series of small tasks that showcase their similarities and differences.

Invite students to stand up and read the following instructions:

Can you stand on 1 leg?
Can you hop?
Can anyone roll their tongue?
Can you raise your eyebrows?
Can anyone do a cartwheel?
Can you touch your toes?
What special things can you do?

Explain to students that different people can do different things with their bodies, so we sometimes need to change what we do to ensure everyone can participate.

Find Out: Making games fair

Step 1

Watch the following video with your students:

Canadian Tire “Wheels” - (youtube.com/watch?v=pFuwUiHo-WI)

Step 2

After viewing, lead a discussion with students using the following prompts:

How did the kids make this game fair?
Did they change the rules, modify the equipment or provide help?

Step 3

Explain to students that there are 3 ways we can change games to make them fair:

we can change the rules (e.g. staggered starts in running)
we can change the equipment (e.g. a modified handle for a bike)
we can have some help (e.g. a running guide)

Step 4

Explain to students that the Australian Commonwealth Games Team practises fairness by including athletes of all abilities in sporting competitions. They have an integrated program with para-athletes and able-bodied athletes competing in the Games as a unified national team, rather than separating para-athletes and able-bodied athletes into separate categories.

Display the Commonwealth Games Para-athletes Visual Explainer to introduce some Commonwealth Games Para-athletes. The athletes included are:

Ellie Cole OAM
Kurt Fearnley AO
Kevin Coombs
Matthew Levy OAM
Indiana Cooper
Ben Wright
Jessica Gallagher
Jake Fehlberg
Melissa Tapper
Sam Harding.

Take Action: Make the change

Step 1

Explain to students that the class will explore familiar movement games they know. Invite students to share a movement game they know of. Using a whiteboard, create a list of movement games based on their suggestions, such as:

Red Rover
tag
octopus
What’s the time, Mr Wolf?

Step 2

Invite students to reflect on how these games could be changed so they are fairer for all participants. Encourage students to share their ideas and create a list of potential changes on a whiteboard, such as:

a different starting line
only walking
head start
using 2-players instead of a 1-player game
changing the number of ‘catchers’, etc

Step 3

Model to students how a game such as Red Rover could be changed to ensure it is fairer for all participants. Use the example below to assist you in your modelling:

Game	Participant needs	Changes
Red Rover	wheelchair user	If we change the rules: • modify who can get called across the court • less or more catchers in the centre of the court If we change the equipment: • adjust the boundaries of the court to make it a smaller space • use a different space rather than an outdoor space where things such as grass may make it difficult for wheelchair users If we offer support: • students work in pairs to support each other

Step 4

Invite students to choose a movement game from the class list and provide students with the list of athletes covered in this lesson as below:

Ellie Cole OAM
Kurt Fearnley AO
Kevin Coombs
Matthew Levy OAM
Indiana Cooper
Ben Wright
Jessica Gallagher
Jake Fehlberg
Melissa Tapper
Sam Harding.

Step 5

Your students’ task is to select 1 of the focus athletes and 1 movement game from this lesson. Using the Student Worksheet, they need to note down changes they could make to their game to ensure they can play it with their chosen athlete.

Encourage students to use the list of movement games and changes on the whiteboard to assist them. Students may like to draw or write their suggested changes.

Step 6

Once completed, invite students to volunteer to assist you in facilitating their movement game with the modified changes. If time permits, you can ask 2-3 students to facilitate a short version of their game.

Reflection

Lead a class discussion with your students using the following questions:

How do we feel when things are fair?
How do we feel when things are unfair?

Lead students to reflect on what they’ve learnt from the Commonwealth Games. To make a game fair, the options are to change the rules, change the equipment, or get help. Ask students how to use these concepts daily and share their responses with the class.

Learning support: Some students may benefit from drawing on their personal experiences in this discussion. You may like to invite students to think of an unfair situation. For example, ‘my sibling gets a later bedtime than I do,’ or ‘some animals are abandoned by their owners.’

Let’s Make it Fair

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Let’s Make it Fair

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